Halloween Hijinks
by Kishiro Kitsune
Summary: It's Halloween and Gilbert decides to have fun by forcing his brother into a costume. Meanwhile, Francis enjoys the visions of loveliness at his annual Halloween party, Antonio hides in the curtains, and everyone prays Scotty doesn't play his bagpipes.


Lars = Netherlands  
>Laura = Belgium<br>Ms. Williams = Canada's Mom  
>Scotty = Scotland<br>Ioan = Wales  
>Faolan = Northern Ireland<br>Mei = Taiwan  
>XianliangLeon = Hong Kong  
>Marco = Seborga<p>

This is part of the universe for All for the Love of Maple Syrup, but if you haven't read it then you should be okay. The first few parts (with Gilbert, Ludwig, Elizaveta, and Ms. Williams) takes place in Canada. The rest with Francis's party is in America.

**Edit 11/7/11** - I forgot to put an apology here at the top for Ludwig's first costume. I apologize in advance. I really hope I don't offend anyone. I tried to play it off as silly as I possibly could all the while making it clear just how much Ludwig hated it. And really, at first I wasn't even going to use it but somehow the mental image of Gilbert hiding around a corner and laughing at his bro made me giggle.

**All for the Love of Maple Syrup**

_Halloween Hijinks_

Gilbert loved Halloween. It was his second favourite holiday of all time. The first was April Fools day. On the opposite end of the spectrum was Ludwig, who wasn't the biggest fan of Halloween. At all. Especially not when Gilbert blackmailed him into doing extremely embarrassing things and terrifying any children who came to their front door for candy. (How did Gilbert know about the porn under his bed? Maybe he should find a new place to hide it…)

"West, hurry up and get out here!" Gilbert yelled, pounding on the bathroom door with his fist. "I wanna see the awesome costume I got for you! You can't stay in there all night! You're ruining the most awesome night of my life!"

Elizaveta appeared in the hallway, clad in a red dress. The rest of her costume was in one of the bags she was carrying. "I left your pitchfork and my shovel downstairs. Is he _still_ in there? What's taking so long?"

Gilbert banged on the door three more times. "West is being a pussy about his costume. Hurry up in there or I'll be the one to hand out candy to all those kids! _And_ I'll dad about you-know-what!"

There was a clicking sound as the doorknob was twisted from inside the bathroom. The door squeaked as it was pushed open, revealing a miserable Ludwig in a stiff-looking military uniform, a brown wig parted to the side, and a shaved moustache.

Elizaveta gasped in surprise, lifting up on hand to cover her mouth as she fought off the laughter bubbling within her. It really wasn't funny. It was more disturbing than anything but so unlike Ludwig that she couldn't help but want to laugh. She felt it was appropriate to label it as a nervous laugh.

"Kesesesese!" Gilbert cackled. "Nice costume, West. Now move so I can get dressed. Unless you'd rather I start stripping in the hallway."

Ludwig sighed. "Bruder, I can't wear this. We have a reputation to uphold." He paused for a brief moment and then corrected his words. "_I _have a reputation to uphold." He sighed as his older brother shoved past him and began tugging off his clothes without bothering to shut the door.

"Veta, you brought the make-up and fangs and shit, right?" Gilbert asked as he kicked off his pants. He chortled when they flopped over the curtain rod and stayed there. He gleefully delved into a paper bag on the floor and emerged with a black hoodie, teal pants, and a black devil tail.

Elizaveta shook the bags she was carrying. "I have it here. Get dressed and then we'll take care of the make-up."

"I don't want any girly eye shadow or shit like that," Gilbert said. "Just make my eyes stand out more. I want to be some kid's fucking nightmare."

Resisting the urge to tell him that he'd already accomplished that earlier that month when the volunteered to help out at the old elementary school for the autumn festival, Elizaveta settled on rolling her eyes. She waited until Gilbert was dressed and admiring himself in the mirror before she marched over and forced him to sit on the counter so she could get to work.

"Stop fidgeting!" Ordered the Hungarian. "Just close your eyes and don't open them until I say you can. It's just eyeliner, I promise."

"It'd better be."

Elizaveta debated over what color to use. Gilbert's overall paleness made it difficult to decide what would look good on him. Black would be far too dark. Brown wouldn't look right and was still to dark. She frowned as she shuffled through her make-up bag, praying she had remembered to bring some of her more vibrant colors. She found her favorite green one, worn down from daily use and set it aside for herself. A blue one was pushed aside, along with a purple one. There was only one left, buried beneath everything else. She flicked aside the brushes, the lipstick, the mascara, the eye shadows, until she was able to close her fingers around the elusive pen.

_Red_.

Elizaveta smirked in victory and got to work.

* * *

><p>When the doorbell rang, Elizaveta and Gilbert ducked out of the hall, leaving Ludwig alone to hand out candy to the poor trick-or-treaters. His only hope was that they were so young they didn't know who he was supposed to be, though he knew he would get looks of hatred from the parents.<p>

He had lucked out when Gilbert agreed that he only had to answer the door once in his costume. After that he and Elizaveta would take care of everything until they either ran out of candy or eight o'clock rolled around. With the amount Gilbert had gone out and bought at various times that week, they wouldn't be running out.

Ludwig sighed and stood up straight as he reached the door. It was only once and he was going to do it the way Gilbert told him to or else be forced to do it all over again. Tall and intimidating. He could do that. He did that practically everyday, most of the time without realizing it. He picked up the skull full of candy sitting on the table near the door and then answered before the children got bored and left.

A blonde saloon girl decked out in black and pink and a brunet cowboy were standing on the front porch, looking far too old to be trick-or-treaters. In fact, Ludwig could swear that he'd seen them before. They looked startlingly similar to two of Elizaveta's co-workers.

"Like, trick or treat…" Said the blonde, her words dying off as she got a good look at Ludwig's costume. She screamed in fright, dropping her My Little Pony bag as she leapt into the arms of the cowboy, accidentally flashing her underwear. "Save me, Toris! Don't let Hitler get me! Oh, this is because I'm Polish, isn't it? Please don't hurt me!"

Ludwig turned beet red, stammered an apology, dropped several candy bars on top of the bag, and then retreated into the house and shut the door. He stood there for a few minutes, trying to comprehend what had just happened and why Feliks, who was, in fact, male, was dressed as a saloon girl.

When he came to his senses, he became aware of Gilbert and Elizaveta laughing loudly behind him. His blush deepened as he turned around and walked towards them, shoving the bowl of treats into Gilbert's hand before going to hide out in some corner of the house where his brother wouldn't be able to find him.

Gilbert happily took his place at the front door while Elizaveta caught Ludwig's arm before he could run off and handed over a paper bag. A glance inside revealed that it was a different costume, probably similar to theirs. He patted the girl on the arm in thanks and went off to change, vowing to burn any evidence that he ever dressed as Hitler for Halloween.

* * *

><p>Next door, Ms. Williams was standing out on her front porch dressed as a witch with a big, smoking caldron full of candy and random knickknacks for children to pick from. She smiled when she saw Laura, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, and Lars, dressed as the Big Bad Wolf, walked up to the house, bickering about something.<p>

"Hello, you two!" Ms. Williams greeted.

Laura rolled her eyes and turned her head away from her brother, her scowl turning to a smile as she called back a greeting. "Hello, Ms. Williams! We're just dropping by to see if we can help with anything before our Halloween party!"

Ms. Williams smiled back at her. "No thank you, dear. I've got everything under control. You two go have fun at your party!"

"Thanks~!" Laura said cheerily, already turning around to continue on her way. She grabbed her brother's hand as he stalled for a moment to wave a goodbye to Ms. Williams, and pulled him away.

Groups of children came and went, the boys cheering when they pulled back their hands to find they'd gotten a squishy fake eyeball to go along with their candy. The girls screamed whenever they got a spider or anything else "icky".

Ms. Williams couldn't help but giggle quietly as she watched them, remembering all of the years of trick-or-treating with Matthew, Gilbert, and Ludwig. They were so adorable back then…

"Peter, slow down! You'll hurt yourself!"

A boy in a patched bear suit hopped up onto the porch, whirling around to face his face. "Hurry up! You're too slow, mom!" He yelled with a decidedly English accent.

Ms. Williams watched as a blonde woman and her red-haired husband appeared, dressed in ordinary day clothes instead of costumes like most of the other adults in the area.

"Hi, I'm Peter!" Greeted the boy, attracting Ms. Williams' attention.

She smiled at him. "Hello, Peter. My, you wouldn't happen to be a Lost Boy, would you?"

He gaped at her in surprise for a moment before smiling broadly and nodding. "Yeah! How'd you know that? Everyone else just thinks I'm pretending to be a bear. I can't believe you got it right!"

"It's one of my favourite movies," Ms. Williams admitted in a whisper, as if sharing a deep secret she'd never admitted to anyone else. "You won't tell, will you? I may get made fun of by the other adults for liking a children's movie."

Peter shook his head. "Nuh-uh! I promise I won't!"

"Thank you. Help yourself to some candy."

He cheered and delved into the caldron, carefully limiting himself to a handful, which he examined before dropping into his bag. He grinned at the spider and eyeball he'd picked up. "Thanks!" He said as he hopped down and ran back to his parents, already babbling away about the nice witch lady before he'd even reached them.

Ms. Williams chuckled. "Oh, I wish my boys were still young…" She sat down on her stool as she got lost in daydreams of the past, of her and Wilhelm talking quietly while the kids got ready, of a frightened Matthew clinging to an overly confident Gilbert who was secretly scared while a completely calm Ludwig stood nearby with no fear.

* * *

><p>Francis's annual Halloween party was off to a great start. He'd once again called in a favor the manager of a local hotel owed him, got a discount on the ballroom, and proceeded to rope his tenants into helping him decorate the place. The end result was as perfect as it could get with Sadik and Heracles breaking out into fights every twenty minutes, Scotty's need to get completely smashed while trying to balance on a ladder and hang streamers and balloons, and Yao fussing over the lack of Hello Kitty, to name a few events.<p>

Still, when Halloween arrived and people started pouring into the ballroom to dance and socialize and have a good time, Francis felt that things couldn't be better.

Dressed as a handsome French prince, he smiled charmingly at a group of young ladies, loving the squeals of delight he was able to elicit from them. From the corner of his eye he spotted Scotty walking around wearing his kilt and carrying bagpipes and vowed to wrestle the instrument from the redhead's arms before the night was over.

Several of his other tenants had already arrived as well. Faolan and Ioan Kirkland were manning the tables in sexy topless waiter costumes that made Francis want to run his hands all over their bodies. (He wouldn't though, for fear that one of the Kirkland brothers would kill him. As much as they loved to torment each other, they were fiercely protective of one another.) Katyusha and Ivan had brought along their younger sister, Natalia, and had gone with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Katyusha was the Mad Hatter, Natalia was the Queen of Hearts, and Ivan was the Dormouse.

Francis couldn't help but chuckle whenever he saw them. As scary as Ivan could be, they certainly made a cute trio. Even if the last time they walked past he heard Natalia chanting about Ivan marrying her.

When Feliciano walked inside in a green dress, a white frilly apron, and his hair under a kerchief, Francis nearly melted. How _cute_ was that? Between Feliciano being all adorable and all of the very beautiful young men and ladies, he wasn't sure how he would keep his hands to himself for the whole night. He spotted Lovino in a chef's costume, Marco as a roman soldier, and Grandpa Vargas in a snazzy suit and decided to stay away from Feliciano.

Laughter from the entrance drew his attention away from the family of Italians. When he laid eyes on Yao, Francis felt more thankful than ever that he had thrown a Halloween party every year he had lived in America. He felt himself drawn to the crowd of Asians.

Kiku, dressed as a samurai, looked up with a pleasant smile as their landlord approached. "Thank you for inviting us to your party, Francis-san."

"It wouldn't be much of a party without good friends, no?" Francis replied. "I am quite impressed with your costumes. Especially yours, Yao."

The Chinese man blushed, trying his best to tug down his Chinese dress. The slit along each side was far too high up on his thighs for his liking and Francis's staring was doing nothing for his self-confidence.

"Aiyaa… Xianliang, I told you this was a bad idea," murmured Yao.

Leon, dressed as a humanoid panda, carelessly shrugged his shoulders. "Don't make a bet with Antonio next time. I'm going to get punch. Are you coming, Yong Soo?"

The Korean teen separated himself from Mei's side so he could bounce over to his best friend. To people who didn't know him, he seemed to be dressed normally, but for him it was quite different, much neater than usual. Francis wasn't sure what his costume was supposed to be. Mei's was quite simple to figure out, with her pink gossamer wings and cute dress. She was a fairy.

Francis spied a fresh group of young people walking through the entrance and bid farewell to his friends in order to go greet them (i.e. flirt).

"Francis!" Antonio happily skipped over to his friend with a realistic-looking battle ax slung over his shoulder. Aside from his weapon, his highly ornate long red coat and his feathered pirate-esque hat were the most eye-catching parts of his costume. "You look magnifico, mi amigo. You decided to go with a prince this year, just like I suggested!" He sounded utterly delighted as he ran his hands over the fabric of Francis's teal coat. "You look good!"

The Frenchman beamed at the praise. "Thank you, mon ami. May I say that you are looking quite magnificent yourself."

Antonio's green eyes lit up. "Really? I thought this baby might be a bit much, but it really enhances the conquistador feel, sí?" He patted his weapon fondly. He spied something over Francis's shoulder and paled slightly, his smile vanishing. "Oh no…"

Wondering what had his friend so worried, Francis turned around and froze for an entirely different reason when he saw who had just walked into the ballroom. There needed to be some sort of law when it came to sexy Halloween costumes. Something to prohibit crabby British men from looking so delectable.

Arthur walked into the room, his head held high with confidence, one green eye uncovered to stare condescendingly at everyone in the room. A hat and a green bandana covered his head, making what could be seen of his blond hair seem even messier than usual. He was also wearing a long red coat, similar but different from Antonio's. When he turned his head, Francis caught glints of gold shining on his ears.

"This is bad. Really bad. So bad. _Dios…_" Antonio's babbling changed from English to Spanish as he began slinking back, doing his best to look small and unnoticeable as he ducked around Francis.

Francis blinked in surprise, ripping his eyes from Arthur to cast an incredulous look at his friend. "Toni, what's wrong?"

Antonio swallowed thickly. "You weren't there the last time he dressed as a pirate. It was terrifying. It was in high school when we were trying to put together a play. We were enemies and there was a sword fighting scene. Everything was fine so long as we weren't in costume, but the moment we were dressed… Arthur's a great actor. Too good. He really, uh, _becomes_ his character and if he sees me like this, well…" He gripped his battle ax tightly. "I'll be hiding in the curtains."

Francis blinked and Antonio was gone, no doubt to do just as he said he would. Instead of finding out exactly where his friend vanished to, he resumed staring hungrily at Arthur, watching as he stalked confidently over to where his brothers were manning the tables.

"Dude, what're you staring at Arthur for?"

Francis flinched in surprise, jerking his head to the side to find Alfred standing right next to him in a primarily blue costume. There was a large white star on his chest and stripes in red and white below it. He wore a helmeted blue mask with an 'A' on the front and white wings printed on either side and carried a round shield with a star in the very middle. "Alfred… what are you supposed to be?"

The American looked highly affronted. "I'm only the greatest superhero of all time! Captain America!" He struck a pose, grinning at the giggles he got from a group of girls as they walked by. Once their attention was directed elsewhere, he dropped his pose and poked Francis. "So why're you staring at Artie? What's so interesting about him?"

Francis raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it obvious? Just look at him."

Alfred did so and then shrugged. "It's just Artie. Well, Artie dressed as a pirate. Kind of a good-looking pirate." He paused, tilting his head a little to examine the Englishman a little more closely. "Well damn…"

"What's going on?"

Another figure of red entered Francis's field of vision, a figure who was much more shy than the others. Wavy hair stuck out from under a brown hair, one curl of hair hanging in front of violet eyes shielded by round-frame glasses. It was only the jacket that was red, as his pants were mostly black and his boots and gloves were dark brown.

"Mathieu!" Francis exclaimed in delight, wrapping an arm around the Canadian and steering him away from Alfred. "You look very nice!"

Matthew rolled his eyes. "You have no idea what I'm supposed to be, eh?"

"Ah, désolé."

Spotting Ivan in a corner with his sisters, Matthew shrugged off Francis's arm. "I'll see you later."

Francis could only watch as the Canadian walked away. His eyes fell to the teen's ass and he stared until he was roughly shoved by Alfred, who did not look happy at all.

"Dude, not cool. Keep it up and I'll tell him and Arthur that you keep staring at them. I really don't think you wanna mess with Artie tonight. He looks dressed to kill. Shit, is that a pistol he's pointing at Ioan? Fuck." Alfred hurried off without another word.

As he watched Alfred wrestle the (hopefully) toy pistol from Arthur's grip, Francis began to consider joining Antonio in the curtains. It seemed as though it was the best hiding place in the room.

* * *

><p>The party didn't end until after midnight, at which point most of everyone was so drunk they could barely walk straight and were certainly in no condition to drive back to the apartment building. Thankfully, Francis had thought ahead and had one of his bus driver friends (who, like the hotel manager, owed him a favour) pick them up at the hotel and drive them back home.<p>

Rather than go to bed once they got back, most of them gathered in Francis's room to relax and have fun. A few people even ran up to their rooms to get old photo albums, so they could have a good laugh about some of their costumes from the past.

Everyone got a giggle out of Yong Soo's sheet ghost costume and Yao's panda suit. Arthur's angel costume from the year before got a few wolf whistles and a playful shove from Alfred. Scotty's persistent repeats of his kilt and bagpipes, albeit in different colors each year, received boos from the gathered tenants. Gilbert and Matthew's Hansel and Gretel costumes received many joking comments, most of which were aimed at Matthew's masculinity. (The Canadian almost considered going upstairs to fetch his hockey stick, but decided he was much too comfy half laying on Ivan.)

"Alfred, were you really a hamburger one Halloween?" Arthur asked, sounding exasperated.

"Sure was!" Alfred cheerfully said. He wasn't at all embarrassed by his pictures. In fact, he grinned and flipped back a page to point out more. "Check it out, Kiku! This is the year we went as Captain Kirk and Spock!"

"Nerd," teased Matthew.

"Shut up, _Gretel,_" Alfred shot back.

Matthew blushed.

And on it went until they were too tired to laugh anymore.

* * *

><p>The End<p>

* * *

><p>HALLOWEEN COSTUMES!<p>

Gilbert = Devil  
>Ludwig = Hitler  devil  
>Elizaveta = devil<br>Feliks = saloon girl  
>Toris = Cowbowsheriff  
>Peter = Lost Boy<br>Francis = Prince  
>Sadik = ?<br>Heracles = Hermes (though he didn't make an appearance aside from during decorating)  
>Yao = Chinese dress<br>Katyusha = Mad Hatter  
>Ivan = Dormouse<br>Natalia = Queen of Hearts  
>Feliciano = Chibitalia<br>Lovino = Chef  
>Marco = roman soldier<br>Grandpa Vargas = James Bond  
>Kiku = Samurai<br>Xianliang/Leon = Humanoid panda  
>Mei = fairy<br>Yong Soo = K-pop singer  
>Antonio = Conquistador<br>Arthur = Pirate  
>Alfred = Captain America (who probably should have been Bucky Barnes instead, with the way he curses in this.)<br>Canada = Mountie

So, my morning started out pretty suckish. I got up, intending to post this (since it's Halloween and all), only to find that my flash drive is missing. Poof. Vanished. Along with everything on it. Thankfully, I had this also saved on my laptop, so I booted it and the PC up and hunted down my back up flash drive so I could transfer the document between the two. (At home I have the main PC, which has internet, and my laptop, which does not.)

The bright side is, I got online to find that Himaruya's doing a Halloween event this year. And with the first few posts, my headcanon of Sherlock Holmes being England's favourite book was proven true~! So I did a happy jig around the room and felt a little better.

So, to get on with my usual end notes about the story. I'm sorry if I offended anyone with the whole Ludwig as Hitler thing in the beginning. I was having trouble coming up with ideas and asked a friend, who suggested that. I almost didn't include it at all, but then I thought about making it all a big joke, so I did.


End file.
